Gone Ghoul

"Has anyone checked the third floor?" I asked. "Made sure it's locked up?"
"Not yet," said Sue, at the desk.
"I'm on it," I said. I headed for the stairs, out the back, got my bike, and rode off down the street.
I went as far as Vesper Street, where I parked and walked up over the dike. I went down to the river. Kneeling down, I pulled a small sample jar out of my coat pocket, and tapped on the ice.
It was solid. There had been a record-setting cold period recently, and the ice had to be six inches thick. And here I needed a water sample.
I spent the next ten minutes trying everything I could to get through. Banging it with a stick. Heaving a rock at it, which immediately shattered the rock. Jumping up and down on it. Nothing worked.
Finally I stopped and thought things over. The ice should be the same chemical composition as the river water---It was just frozen river water. So I took my pocketknife and hacked at it, coming off with a few ice chips.
I shoved them into the sample jar and stuck it in my pocket, then went back for my bike. I rode back to the library. Slipping in the side door, I set the sample jar on the heating vent.
"The third floor all closed up?" Sue asked when I walked back to the main desk.
"Huh? Oh. Yeah. It's fine."

"Tonight, we're studying water monsters," I told the kids. "And we'll be doing a litmus test on some genuine Susquehanna River water. You wouldn't believe what I went through to get it." I looked around at Teen Paranormal, gathered in the Sloan Room. Kara sat next to me. "The Susquehanna Seal was a river monster spotted near here in the 1890s. Tonight, you're going to help me investigate it. Any of you guys ever learn about litmus paper in school?"
Some blank looks. "Okay. Cool. I'm glad to be the first guy to teach you this. Litmus paper tests liquid for acids and bases---It changes color to tell you which they are. The perfect level for supporting life is neutral, about a seven." I had two small containers of liquid on the table in front of me. "Here's two liquids, vinegar and window cleaner. All you have to do is dip the paper in and see what color it turns. Who wants to try it?"
Alex and Aubrey jumped up immediately, Skylar and Olivia a moment later. About what I expected---But they were all interested. I handed out litmus paper---I'd ordered the 200-pack for about $3.50, so we had plenty for multiple tests.
"This one is acid," said Alex. "It's like a one."
"Yep, that's the vinegar," I said. "It's very acidic. How about the other?"
Olivia looked at her litmus paper. "About an eight. A base."
"That's right. Now, let's try the river water. And I haven't tested this---I genuinely don't know if a monster like the Susquehanna Seal could live in it. I wanted to try this first with you guys."
They all dipped their litmus paper, and studied it.
"Neutral," said Aubrey. "It's about a seven."
I nodded. "Which is perfect for supporting life. So....A monster in the river? It's possible."

"That was a neat idea," Kara said downstairs, in my office. "Having them test river water was a nice touch."
"I ordered the litmus paper just the other day," I said. "Paid extra to make sure it got here on time."
I started putting stuff away at my desk. I was wearing my Loch Ness Monster T-shirt. I asked,"Did you get hold of the client on Church Street yet?"
"Yes," said Kara. "If anyone from the team is available, we can do the intake interview Wednesday morning. They recently bought a Bed and Breakfast on Church Street...."
"The Wilson Kistler House," I said. "Place has been known to be haunted for years."
"They've been experiencing noises, cold temperatures, the usual," said Kara. "So we can go and do the interview before we decide on an investigation."
"I'm available," I said. "The place is right across the street; I can see it from our back windows. I'll be here anyway. I'm in."

I was drinking coffee out of my Bigfoot mug when Kara and Millie arrived. I'd been sitting at my desk in webinar for a while, and I finished off the coffee and walked from the haunted library to a haunted house. As one does.
The house was huge and elaborate, and the owner was busy installing a security system when we arrived. She greeted us at the door and let us in, and I looked around. "Been a while since I've been in this place."
"It's huge," said Kara. "We may need a little extra time on this one."
"Look at this couch," said Millie. "Isn't that beautiful?"
I knelt down by the couch. "It's got a code. The Victorian Flower Language."
"The what?" asked Kara.
"You haven't been on one of my tours when I talk about that? The Victorians had meanings for everything---Fruits, trees, leaves, flowers. It was in their furniture, their architecture. There's a secret code from this carved above the door to the post office. This couch is an example....It has roses, and, what's that....?"
"Dogwoods," suggested Millie.
"And I don't have the whole thing memorized, so I'm gonna have to go and look it up. But this means something; this couch is identifiably the right age. There's a meaning in here."
"So you think Gertrude Kistler might be here?" the new owner asked me.
"It's possible. She drowned on a family vacation in 1920, and she's thought to be haunting several places in the community. Her grandfather built this place, so she'd have had fond memories of it. I can't prove it, but I wouldn't rule it out."
We walked through the house. Kara murmured,"This place is huge. It might take more than one time through to investigate. We might also have to bring in more people."
"I have some thoughts on that," I said.
I walked through the upstairs hallway, looking around. This huge old mansion built in 1887. And we got to solve its mysteries.
This is what makes it worth it. Not the solutions, but the mysteries. I love figuring these things our....But whether I solve it or not, I love the attempt. It doesn't matter if I solve a mystery....As long as I get a chance to try.
We sat down in one of the back rooms. I said,"What we're going to do is come in and try to find provable, measurable evidence. We'll use thermometers, cameras, digital recorders. We're trying to find something like....Here, I usually have one on me." I got out my recorder. "This one....No, wait, that's the Loch Ness Monster. Here." I played one of our old EVPs, where we could hear a whispery voice say "Play....with....me."
"Oh, wow," she said. "That's amazing."
"Now, remember, that's the best of the best. Most of them aren't that good. But we'll come in, set up the cameras....This place will look like the Death Star. We'll need several hours to cover the whole place."
"We have a meeting Saturday night," said Kara. "We'll find a good time, and contact you."

We all bring our own skills and contributions to the Lock Haven Paranormal Seekers. Theresa knows the electronics, Millie has an in with the local theater, and I'm the reason we get to meet in a haunted airplane museum.
I was in my office with Kara. Ashlin, and Millie when my cell phone rang. I picked it up. "Hello."
"Lou? It's Kris. I found the museum, but I can't find your magic door on the front of the building. In fact, I can't find the front of the building."
I walked across the museum floor and down the stairs. "Where are you? What do you see?"
"The two buildings, and a sort of path between the trees."
"Okay, you're looking at the Blue Building next door. The parking lot is out front." I exited the museum, walked across the lot, and turned between the two buildings.
"I'm not seeing the door....Wait....I see you."
I closed the phone and met my friend Kris between the two buildings, under the street lights.
"Hello, Lou," she said.
I smiled. "How you been, Kris?"

"We formed ten years ago," I said. "What the Lock Haven Paranormal Seekers try to do is find provable, measurable evidence of the paranormal. We also try to explain events in a logical way---If we can't rule it out any other way, then maybe we have something paranormal."
Kris nodded. We were sitting in my office at the monthly meeting. She asked,"So, each of you. What got you into paranormal investigation?"
"I've always been interested," said Millie. "Ten years ago I went on a tour of the museum where Lou used to work, and he mentioned that he had joined a ghost-hunting team. We met that night for a walk-through in Highland Cemetery."
"First night I met you, I took you to a haunted cemetery," I said. "Do I know how to show a girl a good time, or what?"
Millie laughed. Kara said,"I experienced some things in the attic of my father's house when I was a kid. When I joined the team, we went to investigate it on one of our first times out."
"That was what really brought us together," I said. "That was the first time we really became a team."
"I was working at the grocery store and I heard Lou talking about a new teen team," said Ashlin. "I joined, and when I turned eighteen, they promoted me into this group."
Kris looked at me. "And you?"
"I like adventure," I said. "Ever since I was a kid, I went looking for stuff like this. When I was sixteen, I tried to investigate a house that was thought to be haunted. When the team formed, I agreed to advise on local history. Ten years later.....Here I am."
"We'd like to do an EVP session, just to start your training," said Millie.
Kris smiled at me. "I liked the piece you did on Marilyn Monroe being invited to judge a canoe race in Renovo," she said.
"Canoe In The Wind? Yeah, that was a good one."
I stood up and pulled on my tactical vest. Kris looked it over. "Wow. Where did that come from?"
"I order them," I said. "I tried everything to carry my equipment. Pockets, tool belts....Nothing really worked. This seems to work the best."
Millie eyed it. "I oughta get one of those. It'd be better than that bag I have to carry."
I zipped it up. "Let's do this."

Two days after the meeting, I got up and dropped my son off at Tif's house for babysitting. I had to do the title search on the Kistler House. I'd also gotten an e-mail from the local newspaper, asking for information about the 1918 Ice Flood. So I'd have to make a couple of round trips involving the newspaper, the courthouse, and the library to deal with all the haunted houses and historic floods.
Mondays. Am I right?
I started at the library, digging out photos of the 1918 Ice Flood. Then I ran them down to the Express, dropped them off with the editor, and biked over to the courthouse.
I spent half an hour pulling the deeds, and it was one of the easier ones I've ever done. No straw deeds, no cow deeds, no sheriff's sales. Just a nice straight line back to 1889, when the place was built.
Back to the library. I pulled the obits, and discovered some more new things. A lot of what we thought we'd known about the Wilson Kistler House was wrong. And at the end of it all, there had been no tragic deaths related to the house, no suicides, murders, accidents....Except for one.
Hello again, Gertrude.

We gathered in the parking lot of the library. It was the best place, right across from the haunted house. Snow was coming down, beginning to cover the sidewalks."
"Kris had a death in the family," I told the others. "She said she wanted to make it---She really doesn't want to let us down---But she wasn't sure she could get here from the funeral. I got her a card." We passed it around and signed it. "I told her we understand."
"Of course we do," said Theresa. "Give us the history, Lou."

"Okay, guys, historian coming in hot," I said. "I've done the research, and local history-wise, it's earth-shattering. The house was built in 1889, an addition to a much smaller structure that already stood on that property. The Wilson Kistler House was not built by Wilson Kistler, but by Patrick King, who may have been a relative to Kistler. This alone contradicts much of what we thought we knew about that house, and on a historic level, is fairly groundbreaking. King died in 1923, for the record, and is buried in Saint Mary's Cemetery with no marker. Incidentally, it's the same cemetery where the Witch of Sugar Run is buried; when we had that escapade in October, we probably weren't too far from his grave. "

They were gathered, watching me. Theresa, Millie, Kara, Ashlin.

"Wilson Kistler died in 1914, leaving his house to his son, Sedgewick, Gertrude's dad. Gertrude Kistler died in July 1920 on a vacation to Yosemite State Park. Most of the people involved died at a ripe old age after a full life. I have not found a record of a young or violent death on that property, which suggests that the prime candidate to be haunting the place is Gertrude, after all."

The place was big. There was no getting around it. we were never going to cover the whole thing on one investigation, so we chose the best spots and got set up. I walked around and took photos, and gave the client her historic report. When I found Ashlin, she was on the first floor, awaiting a cable that Kara was lowering down from the third through the banisters.
"You connecting that to anything?" I asked.
"No idea," she said. "Kara's on the other end."
I walked up to the third floor, where Kara was struggling with the coil. I helped her untangle it, and we dropped the rest down to Ashlin.
"Go ask Theresa if she's getting a picture down there yet," said Kara.
I went back down to Theresa, on the first floor. "Kara wants to know if we have visual."
"Yes," she said. "We're using the new camera up there. Do we want one on second?"
"Probably; let's run it up that servant's staircase to the hallway."
I strapped on my tac vest. There was a big mirror ahead of me; I looked myself over. "I love this vest. I look like an action figure."
"I'll take the first shift on monitor duty," said Theresa. "The rest of you can start an EVP session. Where do you want to begin?"
"First floor," suggested Millie.
"How about the sitting room?" I asked.
In a few minutes, we were all gathered in the front east room, a pretty sitting room. We activated our digital recorders, setting them on the coffee table.
"EVP Session," I said. "Wilson Kistler House, first floor. It's 8:02 PM. Lou."
"Millie."
"Kara."
"Ashlin."
An EVP session is when you ask random questions, and wait to see if you catch anything on sound recordings. So, quietly, in the dark, we spoke.
I opened with the usual. "Is there anyone here?"
"Can you tell us your name?"
"What did you do for a living?"
"Could you come near my device?" Millie asked. "Can you make the green light come on?"
"Or, you know, you could possess Ashlin," I said. "She's about your age."
"That's a no," said Ashlin. "I don't want to be possessed."
"What, I crawl into holes and attics all the time, but you won't let a ghost possess you for five minutes? Take one for the team."
"So I get possessed while the rest of you watch? What kind of half-assed team is this?"
"Snow plow outside," Kara said, tagging the sound.
"I'm feeling cold," said Ashlin. "All up and down my arm. It feels freezing."
"I'm getting it, too," said Kara. "Right arm. Does anyone else feel cold?"
"I don't," I said,"But that may be because I been drinking coffee and wearing a ten-pound vest. Let's do a reading." I got out my laser thermometer, and played the laser over the two of them. "Guys, I'm getting nothing. Temperature is steady around a baseline of sixty-seven. Whatever you're feeling, it's not showing up on the equipment."
"I can feel it," insisted Kara. "It's like half of me is in cold water."
"Water?" I said.
She looked up at me. "What?"
I said,"Gertrude drowned."

"Let's do one more," Theresa suggested around eleven-thirty. "We'll split up. I'll get back on the monitor."
"I still think possession of Ashlin is not off the table," I suggested.
"No way," said Ashlin. "How come my head has to spin around in circles? Why not Theresa?"
"Theresa already does that."
"Lou and I can take the second floor," said Kara. "Where do you want to be?"
"Let's do your favorite," I said. "The Pemberley Room."
She smiled. "Well, okay."
We went up, and did the usual. For us, anyway. Took photos, turned out the lights, started the recorders, and waited in the dark for dead people to arrive. Maybe usual isn't really the word.
"I seem to remember ten years ago, up in Cameron County," I said. "First time you and I ever worked together was at the top of a big building like this."
Kara laughed. "I remember. Up in that attic."
"Ten years. Has it really been that long?"
"This coming summer," said Kara. "We've had some good times."
"Yeah," I said. "Good times."